Perception
by ShortAtntionSpaz
Summary: Sometimes, things just aren't as they seem.
1. Default Chapter

A/N: Ok, I need a favor from you guys. If you start to read it, please finish the chapter, it's not as everyday as you think it is. You'll understand when you get to the end. (Please don't skip ahead though, that ruins it!)

~*~*~*~*~

Thirty First Street wasn't the best neighborhood in Manhattan, but neither was it the worst. Like most neighborhoods, it had its run down houses, and it's well kept ones. In the middle of the block was a relatively well kept, yet very small looking house. It was a simple, whitewashed home with blue shutters, and an unpainted wooden fence surrounding a small yard. The front door was painted blue to match the shutters, and opened up into a sparsely, but comfortably decorated living room, an adequate kitchen, and two bedrooms, one medium, and the other small. It seemed to fit its occupants quite nicely. Mother, father, and daughter lived there in their own quiet little world. 

Opening the door, and feeling the sunshine on her face, a young girl of fifteen turned and announced into the house, "I'm going to market!"

"Be careful!" was the only reply she got from inside, so she carefully shut the door behind her, and walked down the four steps to the ground, careful to use the railing. She slowly made her way across the lawn, deeply inhaling the scent of the flowering blossoms of the cherry tree in the corner of the yard. There was nothing all too remarkable about this girl, dressed in a simple, freshly laundered brown skirt and white blouse, with sturdy, unadorned shoes, and her dark hair swept up, as if she were just trying to get it out of her face. She walked along the rough wooden fence, reaching out to trail her fingers on the coarse surface until she got to the gate. After fumbling with the latch, she, on a whim, plucked up a stick that was left leaning on the fence boards. Humming a simple tune, she dragged her stick against the edge of the sidewalk, sure of her steps, and the route she had taken so many times before. This was her daily ritual, walk to market and get the fresh bread, milk, and other perishable foods that her small family needed for the day. It wasn't like they could buy their food every two, or even three days, but she liked her daily trips to the market, and the sounds of the bustle of many feet, merchants, customers, and even horses. The smells were always enticing as she walked past the different merchants and their carts filled with food. 

After finding her favorite bench to sit at, she relaxed, just enjoying the surroundings of her favorite place. After loosing all track of time for a while, she got up, and continued her walk through the humble market.

Stopping in front of a cart, she heard the merchant's greeting, "why hello miss, what will it be for you today?" 

With a grin, she answered back, "Just the usual loaf of bread please, ma'am."

After she paid for her purchase, tucking it into her shoulder bag, she stopped at the fruit cart, and then the store that sold her a bottle of milk, repeating basically the same thing as the first place, she started back home, enjoying the feeling of the setting sun warming her back and neck. Taking a deep breath, she was anticipating the first scent of the cherry tree in her front yard.

Instead of smelling cherry blossoms, the only scent that made it to her nostrils was that of wood burning. Wrinkling her nose in question, she wondered why any of her neighbors would have a fire in the fireplace this time of year, it was just too warm for that. Fleetingly thinking of something she wanted to tell her mother when she got home, the girl quickened her pace, only to bump into someone in the process. 

"I'm terribly sorry!" she exclaimed, carefully trying to walk around him. The trouble was, there was a crowd in front of her house. She was so deep in her thoughts she hadn't realized it until she had bumped into someone. Still deeply in thought, she tried to push her way through the crowd, but was unsuccessful.

"May I get through please. I need to go home." She pleaded into the crowd, but was ignored.

Then she heard something that made her blood freeze.

"Yeah, whole place went up in smoke before they could get out. Yeah, a shame, such a pretty house with its blue shutters and door. Aint nothin' left now… well, nothin' worth savin."

Upon hearing this, she suddenly choked, noticing just how strong the smell of smoke was. Holding back tears, she coughed, unable to breathe. She stood there, dumbstruck for a few moments, with the stranger's voice echoing in her ears, "Before they could get out." Then she realized that it was someone else's voice, the whole crowd was buzzing with it. "No survivors. Died. Nothing left."

Choking again on the smoke, she ran off down the street, tears streaming down her cheeks.

She ran as fast as she could, like she had never ran before, not caring where her feet took her. Suddenly, a loose rock in the cobblestone caught the toe of her shoe, and she tripped, running headfirst into a wall, knocking her unconscious.

~*~*~*~*~

"Nah, I think dat Swifty's gonna win da poker game tonight!" Kid Blink announced to Racetrack as they walked towards the lodging house.

"Nah, you know poker's my game, I got dis one!" Racetrack quipped.

"Yeah, same as you got it last time, right?" Blink snickered.

"Why I aughtta-" Racetrack started, reaching out to smack Kid Blink in the arm.

"Watch it." Blink said with a grin as he dodged Race's attack. 

After a few seconds of silence, Racetrack reached out and shoved blink into an alley as they were passing, and he stumbled in the semi-darkness over something.

"You ai'ght, Kid?" Race asked.

"Fine, I just tripped over… Race, it's a girl!"

~*~*~*~*~

"She was jest layin in da alley!" Kid Blink stated again to Jack as they looked over at the girl they had laid out on an extra bunk. "I don't know how long she's been there… But that's one heck of a bruise on her forehead, that's for sure…" he said, commenting on the large, swollen purplish black mark above her left eyebrow.

Suddenly, she stirred. Sitting up with a whimper, she felt the bed under her, and the blanket lying across her, her hands skimming the wood and fabric, and fluttering over everything within arm's reach.

Walking over towards her bunk, Blink noticed how she cocked her head to follow the sound of his feet shuffling across the floor, before she panicked. Her hands went up over her head to shield herself, and she painfully scraped her knuckles on the bunk bed over her. Gingerly reaching her hands up to the wooden bed frame, she wrinkled her eyebrows.

Looking at her in amazement, Blink asked, "You're blind aren't you?"

~*~*~*~*~

A/N: It was another idea that I had to get out of my head. I thought it was something that hadn't been done before, so I figured it was my job to do so! *grins, quite pleased with herself*


	2. One eye between us

A/N: Hey all! Thank you to my four reviewers!!!

Sapphy:  YAY! You're hyper! Like me! Can you teach me how to be a ninja too?

Tiggerbaby2430/ Daisy: Well, of course there weren't enough Newsies in it, there never are! Well, I know there wasn't much with them in it, but I wanted to set up the chapter in a certain way,and_ then_ insert the Newsies. Get it? :-D

KodachiSoul: Thank you! I'm glad you like it! What does your name mean?

Gracie Jane: Thank you! You're awesome! There really aren't too many people in the world that tell me to rock on… in fact, you may be the only. Oh, and if Jane is your middle name, then that makes you doubly awesome, because that's my middle name too!

Writing a story and getting no reviews is like the extreme disappointment of having the ice cream fall off of the cone.

~*~*~*~*~

"Is it true?" Kid Blink asked the girl. "Are you Blind?"

Still panicking, she nodded her head. "I have been since I was four… Where am I?" she asked.

Not wanting to introduce himself, or intrude in on their conversation, Jack silently tiptoed out of the room and down the stairs.

"The Newsboys lodging house… I'm Kid Blink, or Blink. What's your name?"

"Brooke… I've never heard a name like yours before." She said with a puzzled look.

"Ah, well, I wear an eye patch." He said, obviously uncomfortable talking about it with a strange girl.

Hearing the tone in his voice, she changed the subject, "What time is it?"

"It's almost six in the evening. What happened to your head?"

Gingerly, she touched her fingers to her forehead, wincing as they brushed the swollen lump that was there. "I think I found a wall… I was running." She said, and all the memories of the day flooded back to her, and she started crying.

"What, did someone hurt you?" Blink asked, sitting at the foot of the bed she was laying on.

"No… there was a fire… I heard them… talking about it…" she said in between sobs.

"What fire, where?" he asked, concerned that she was so distraught, with tears streaming down her face in torrents.

"My house… my parents… no survivors." She wept.

Kid Blink stayed at the foot of her bed, he patted her knee through the blanket that still covered her, and sat with her until her tears stopped, and she drifted into an uneasy sleep. When she awoke again an hour later, he was still there; only he had gotten up to get a book to read.

"Blink?" she asked, trying to figure out if he was still there.

"I'm here still." He reassured.

With a smile, she said, "Good."

"Hey, the other guys should be at Tibby's, eating dinner, are you hungry?" he asked, his stomach growling.

"Who will be at Tibby's? Who's Tibby?"

"It's a restaurant nearby, I'll buy you dinner."

"Are you sure?" she asked, uncertainly.

"Most definitely." He grinned, in spite of himself, even though she couldn't see it.

Pulling back the blanket, she turned and put her feet on the floor. "I don't know where we're going." She informed him.

He took hold of her hand and gently squeezed it, "Oh, that's all right, we've got one eye between us, we'll get there just fine."

~*~*~*~*~

Down the street, in Tibby's restaurant, most of the boys from the lodging house were discussing their new boarder, pondering whether or not she would be there temporarily or not.

Before they could come to any conclusion, Kid Blink came into the restaurant with a girl on his arm. Her hair was messed up, and her eyes were swollen from crying, but she was still beautiful. Not strikingly so, but she would catch almost anyone's eye. Keeping one arm out to find the edges of tables, she followed Blink over to the group of tables where his friends were sitting.

Blink gently turned her so she was facing his friends, and asked, "Brooke, are you up to meeting some new people, or would you like to sit away from everyone?"

"I'm fine with meeting people." She said with a smile.

Well, there are a lot of them here… All of the guys over here live at the lodging house." He explained, helping her sit. After he sat down next to her, he introduced them in turn, letting them all say hello so she could hear their voices.

After dinner, the boisterous group of boys made their way back towards the lodging house, laughing and joking as they went. Falling back behind the group, no one noticed when Kid Blink and Brooke stayed behind the crowd, and eventually broke away, opting for the quiet of a walk around the block instead of the noisy bunkroom.

"When I was four, my eyesight just started fading. My parents didn't have the money to take me to the doctor to get my eyes checked… There was nothing they could do themselves. Within a month, I went from seeing everything clearly, to completely blind." She explained. "My mother home schooled me the best she could, from one book my parents could find written in Braille."

"Braille?" Blink said slowly, letting the foreign word roll off his tongue. "What's that?" he asked.

"Its letters made from raised dots in the paper… so blind people can read with their fingertips." She explained. "My mother was a great teacher." She said, her voice catching in her throat as she started crying.

Putting his arm over her shoulder, he led her over to a bench to sit. Tightly holding her hand, they just sat in silence for a while.

Suddenly, she broke the silence with an exclamation, "I just wish I knew for sure!" she said bitterly.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I heard the crowd talking about the house with the blue shutters and door, and that there were no survivors." She said, her voice shaking. "But I can't be entirely positive without going back… and I don't think I can do that by myself…" she said, before the tears started escaping again.

"Would you like me to go with you tomorrow to find out for sure?" he asked gingerly.

"You … you would do that for me?" she asked in disbelief.

"Sure I would." He said, patting her hand.

"Why are you so nice to me?" she said, shaking her head. "There is nothing I can do for you!" 

"That's what friends are for."

~*~*~*~*~

A/N: I really have no idea where the story is going from here. I have some half ideas that might work… I don't really know though. So if you have any ideas, I would appreciate it if you send them to me!

THANKSYA MUCHES!

~The Spazzmatazz!


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